Choosing the best mining OS is a task that every miner must eventually face. Its choice is crucial — it is the heart of the miner's software. The operating system handles many functions in the miner, and its choice can make the miner work smoothly for years. Making a random choice without prior recognition can manifest itself in hours spent on additional problems that keep appearing. Modern operating systems dedicated to cryptocurrency mining can detect, among other things, whether all graphics cards are working correctly. If an unsolvable error occurs on any of them, they will restart the machine.

Top mining Operating Systems for Cryptocurrency Mining

Hiveon OS is the ultimate mining platform for efficiently setting up, mining, and controlling processes.
Easy-Mining OS allows simple launching into the world of cryptocurrency mining.
ethOS enables mining Ethereum, Zcash, Monero, and other GPU-minable coins.
Awesome Miner is beneficial for digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin etc.
MMP OS allows managing mining rigs with comfort from the browser window.
Simple Mining OS is an easy-to-use Plug&Play Linux Mining OS Platform used for cryptocurrency GPU mining.
RokOS is a Raspbian based OS with integrated Bitcoin support that one can use for free.
Rave OS is an operating system for configuring, monitoring, and administering the rigs and ASICs.
Minerstat is a good choice for Linux OS cryptocurrency mining.
Tails is a portable operating system with a high level of protection from surveillance and censorship.

Why choose a dedicated system for cryptocurrency mining?

New miners often start by downloading a cryptocurrency miner and begin mining on their Windows computer that they use daily. Even though dedicated operating systems typically cost a few dollars a month per copier (though free options are often available), many people choose to use them anyway. So why choose a mining OS when there is a one-time fee for Windows and many free Linux distributions on the market? There are many reasons, but they boil down to the same thing: maximizing your profits. While installing Windows from scratch is a great way to estimate your graphics card’s performance, it sadly completely fails on a larger scale. Here are some examples of how:

Remote control. With remote access, you don't have to connect a monitor and keyboard to the mining rig to check the status and make changes or install updates, but you can do it from an interface on a website or, in some cases, even a mobile app.
Temperature control. Overheating of the card can lead to permanent damage. If the temperature is too high, take the appropriate steps, such as replacing a broken fan, replacing thermal pads, or lowering the ambient temperature.
Software updates. New miners or driver updates in the cryptocurrency mining industry often allow for higher performance, resulting in increased mining profits. Cryptocurrency mining systems usually allow miners to be updated remotely with a button on a website. It eliminates the need to track all updates yourself, go to the developer's website, download, install, and reconfigure updated versions of miners. It is a big time saver, especially with multiple mining rigs.
Ease of use. Most of the settings are already set for you in cryptocurrency mining systems, so you don't have to worry about them. The configuration provided by cryptocurrency mining systems will allow your mining rig to run more stably, with fewer errors, resulting in higher profits and time savings.

What to look for in an operating system for cryptocurrency mining?

These are the key factors to pay attention to while choosing an OS for cryptocurrency mining:

Performance. The advantages of dedicated cryptocurrency mining operating systems include optimizing power consumption by focusing component performance on the cryptocurrency mining process. These operating systems are fully built with cryptocurrency mining in mind, so they try to do everything possible to allocate as much computing power as possible to this task. The case differs from general-purpose operating systems that focus on making the graphics as smooth as possible for the user. Many of them provide a custom kernel to ensure high cryptocurrency mining performance.
Overclocking. Systems dedicated to cryptocurrency mining also usually have built-in overclocking tools. For example, to lock the core clock on NVIDIA Ampere series cards on Windows, you will need either a miner that supports such a feature or the nvidia-smi utility and prepare a special bat file. On the other hand, in systems dedicated to mining cryptocurrencies, such as Hiveon OS or MMP OS, you just need to specify the selected timing in the panel on the website. Moreover, in the case of the first one, if you do not know what to enter, you can preview the most commonly used settings on your specific graphics card model. Isn't it convenient?
Error handling. Another issue is the appearance of potential problems with the mining rig. Many things can cause them, from overclocking too much to overheating of the card or damage to the riser. They can cause the graphics card to crash and require a system reboot. What will general-purpose operating systems do in this situation? Nothing at all. The graphics card will stay in the system and will only consume power and cause further problems like rebooting the miner. For most cryptocurrency mining systems, the miner will reboot and notify us of the situation so that you can take the appropriate steps.
Notifications. When there is a problem with the mining rig, the bot will notify us by sending us a message through Discord and Telegram, and you will have the possibility to react immediately. This way, you will avoid a situation where a problem with one graphics card will hurt all other graphics cards in the mining rig. It will lead the whole rig not to mine for a few days until you notice the problem yourself, only generating noise and consuming electricity.
Customer support can come in handy when you encounter issues with your mining rig, so check if your operating system has a support team.
Updates. While looking for the best OS for crypto mining, it is worth choosing a regularly updated system to enjoy your graphic cards' full performance and complete support.

Top 10 mining Operating Systems for Digital Mining

When compiling this list, we considered multiple vital factors. Any provider on the list offers excellent services and will be a perfect choice for your crypto mining farm.

Hiveon OS

✅ Extensive technical support.
✅ iOS and Android mobile apps.
✅ 24/7 support via Live Chat, Telegram, and Discord.
✅ Free plan is available.
❌ Occasional downtimes.
❌ Notifications are sometimes delayed by a few minutes.

If you've been looking for a cryptocurrency mining system, you've definitely heard of Hiveon OS. It is the most popular cryptocurrency mining operating system used by tons of people worldwide. It is impossible to list all its features because there are so many. Let us mention the main ones:

A self-explanatory and intuitive interface that allows you to manage your mining rig easily.
The possibility to assign access to a third party (you can also choose the access level) without sharing your login and password.
The Hiveon OS community is massive. Almost every doubt and the problem you might encounter during your cryptocurrency mining adventure has already been resolved in the extensive forum.
The support team will also provide you with the highest support level. It is available via Live Chat, Telegram, and email, 24/7.
Almost all the features you can think of are available in Hiveon OS. These include graphics card overclocking (including core lock and P0 mode on NVIDIA cards), reduced idle power consumption, mineral tuning, activity logs, worker bulk installation, GPU BIOS flashing, etc.
Migrating to Hiveon OS from any other Debian Linux-based system is trivially easy and possible with the hive-replace tool. With this tool, no physical access to the mining rig is needed during this procedure, although it is recommended if there are any issues.

This and many other factors make Hiveon OS the best OS for Ethereum mining.

Price: The price of Hiveon OS is $3 for each second and subsequent Ethereum miner (one is always free), but you can also pay the commission by mining on the Hiveon Pool. You can check the exact prices of using Hiveon OS here.

Easy-Mining OS

✅ First 3 mining rigs are free.
❌ No longer maintained.
❌ Lack of support for modern GPUs.

EasyMine OS offers many exciting features, despite not being very popular:

The user interface is minimalistic and intuitive.
Many statistics in the form of graphs are available.
A good Technical Support. The free version is only available in the form of community support, but in the paid plans, the support team is there to help.

The biggest problem, however, is the lack of updates. As of 2018, the project has remained in beta on version 0.5.4, and in many aspects, it still needs updates. These are crucial for mining cryptocurrencies, which is a big drawback, completely disqualifying it for many miners.

Price: The system is entirely free for the first three mining rigs, and you can calculate the cost of more devices here.

ethOS

✅ One-time fee.
❌ No longer maintained.
❌ Lack of support for modern GPUs.

This cryptocurrency stands out from the competition primarily by its charging model. Most operating systems charge a monthly fee, but ethOS has taken a different approach - a one-time fee. This pricing model, of course, requires several times higher one-time payments than the monthly price for other operating systems. Still, if you plan to mine cryptocurrencies for several years using this system, the sum of the monthly fees will eventually exceed the one-time payment.

Unfortunately, ethOS also has a significant drawback - it hasn't been updated since 2018. It affects many aspects, including the lack of support for NVIDIA's RTX series graphics cards and modern AMD graphics cards. Other features, such as the system of notifications about problems with the miner, work based on services that have ceased to operate, making it impossible to use them. The lack of miners, drivers, or kernel updates is a big problem. It can translate into the lower performance of the mining rig or make it impossible to mine cryptocurrencies altogether.

Price: Check the details of a one-time fee.

Awesome Miner

✅ Good UI
✅ Has excellent photo editor
❌ Issues with compatibility
❌ Slow performance
❌ You have to pay extra
❌ Issues with updates
❌ Complicated to manage
❌ Doesn’t support Macs or iOS mobile devices (iPhone & iPad etc.)

Awesome Miner is a Windows application for managing and monitoring Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies mining.

The platform is compatible with both Windows and Ubuntu/Linux computers.
Its built-in web interface is accessible from any computer, tablet, or mobile (Android/APK).

Price: There are several payment options. One can also use the services with limited features for up to two miners (the subscription is not needed in this case) or the complete suite of features (monthly and annual plans are available).

Monthly – $4 for two miners per month (all features, cloud services, and product support via email are included; ASIC, GPU, and CPU mining are supported).
Annually – $36 for two miners per year (all features, cloud services, and product support via email are included; ASIC, GPU, and CPU mining are supported).

MMP OS

✅ NVIDIA GDDR6X memory temperatures reading.
✅ Inexpensive for rigs with a small number of GPUs.
✅ Free plan is available.
❌ No longer maintained.
❌ No mobile apps.

MMP OS is an operating system that recently gained popularity by enabling memory temperature reading on NVIDIA cards with GDDR6X memory as the first Linux-based cryptocurrency mining operating system. It was a significant achievement, as many people have tried to achieve this effect for years without success. Because of the memory temperatures readings, MMP OS is considered by some miners to be the best OS for mining Ethereum. When mining this cryptocurrency, the graphics card memory can overheat severely. Miners of the most popular NVIDIA cards (T-Rex and GMiner) have also added this functionality, making reading memory temperatures possible on all Linux-based operating systems. However, this situation shows that MMP OS can innovate in the market.

However, this situation shows that MMP OS can innovate in the market.

MMP OS is also interesting in other aspects:

Its pricing is based on credits that cost about 25 cents per month for each graphics card. The MMP OS pricing model makes it a viable choice for mining rig owners, especially with fewer graphics cards. Furthermore, now because of the situation in Ukraine, MMP OS has made the platform completely free of charge until further notice and instead encourages its users to donate funds to support Ukraine.
The user interface is modern and intuitive.
The support team at Telegram kindly solves problems that users encounter while using this operating system.
Miner updates happen regularly. MMP OS's drivers are up-to-date and support all modern graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD.
Notifications about any issues with the mining rig come instantly, which can be a significant advantage.

Price: Its pricing is based on credits that cost about 25 cents per month for each graphics card. Because of the war in Ukraine, MMP OS has made the platform completely free of charge until further notice. The Company encourages the users to donate funds to support Ukraine instead.

Simple Mining OS

✅ Large knowledge base.
✅ Live support via Discord.
❌ No free plans.

Simple Mining OS (SMOS for short) is one of the most widely used cryptocurrency mining systems today.

It is constantly updated and improved, supports the latest versions of various miners, and the drivers are up to date.
The support team is there to help in real-time via Discord or by email if this way fails to solve the problem.
There is also an extensive knowledge base at users' disposal.
A revenue calculator for various graphics cards based on whattomine is available.
SMOS offers a migration script from other operating systems. If your mining rig is already mining cryptocurrencies using another Linux-based operating system, there is no need to manually install the system onto a flash drive or an SSD.

At the same time, the developers have a sense of humor and try to make the maintenance of mining rigs not solely associated with monotony - the Poles who created this mining OS called their company "StupidThings."

Price: It is also one of the cheapest operating systems for cryptocurrency mining, as the fee is $2 per month.

RokOS

✅ 100% free and open-source.
✅ Clean UI.
❌ Not suitable for GPU mining.

RokOS is a Bitcoin full node. It supports many cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, OKCash, Gamecredits, Digitalcoin, Blackcoin, Diamondcoin, Energycoin, Europecoin, Soil, Mojo, Transfer, Kobocoin, Dash, MonetaryUnit, OpenBazaar, Expanse, and Einsteinium. So, it is not the best mining OS for miners mining cryptocurrencies like Ethereum using graphics cards. We can install it on Raspberry Pi, zero, 2, 3, 4, BananaPi PRO, PINE64+, Odroid + IoT Devices.

It was actively developed until February 2021, and there have been no new updates since then, but it still works well. It is based on Linux Debian, and its interface is clean and user-friendly.

Price: What makes it unique is entirely free and open-source code.

Rave OS

✅ 100% free for those mining on 2miners pool.
✅ Quick miners’ updates.
✅ Free plan is available.
❌ Not a very intuitive user interface.

Rave OS is a system developed from scratch and not based on another Linux (most other cryptocurrency mining operating systems are based on Linux Debian or Ubuntu). It makes it highly optimized for power consumption and tries to focus performance on the cryptocurrency mining process.
New miners' updates appear quickly, often within hours or even minutes when it comes to updates.
Rave OS impresses with its speed when performing maintenance on the mining rig - the user gets the impression that all operations take place instantly, from working via SSH to overclocking changes in the panel on the website.

Unfortunately, the drivers in the stable version are not the latest, making it lack support for the latest graphics cards such as the RTX 3080 12GB or RTX 3050. The user interface may also not be to your liking, as it lacks options such as setting P0 mode or Absolute Core Lock from the UI, although it is possible after entering the appropriate commands.

Price: Using Rave OS is completely free regardless of the number of mining rigs if you use the 2miners mining pool. It can be argued that Rave OS is the best OS for mining Ethereum on the 2miners pool. If you choose another pool, the first mining rig is free, and each subsequent mining rig costs $2/month.

msOS (Minerstat)

✅ Profit switching.
✅ Mobile apps for Android and iOS.
❌ Free plan is limited.

The developers heavily advertise the profit switching feature, and it may be a deciding factor for some miners when choosing the best OS for crypto mining. Depending on the current revenue yield, it allows you to change the cryptocurrency you are currently mining. These calculations are based on their profitability calculator.
Besides the standard features such as website preview and overclocking, miners can also benchmark various miners and algorithms.
The mobile app for Android and iOS is available.

Price: Check out the current prices.

Tails

✅ Designed with security features in mind.
✅ 100% free and open-source.
❌ Not designed for mining.
❌ Lack of remote control, miner updates, etc.

Tails is a system that has anonymity and privacy as its primary goals. If you don't want your ISP to know that you're mining cryptocurrencies, Tails may be the best OS for crypto mining. You will find many tools installed and configured by default that serve this purpose. It connects to the Internet only through the anonymous Tor network.
It is based on Linux Debian, and configuring it for cryptocurrency mining is not difficult. You need to install drivers and a miner, and you can start mining cryptocurrencies.
It is worth considering for larger farms comprising dozens/hundreds of mining rigs. Knowledge of Linux will come in handy, though.

Tails is an operating system not designed for cryptocurrency mining. Thus, you cannot take advantage of the features provided by such systems, i.e., remote access from anywhere in the world, control of the mining process via a website, automatic reboots in case of problems with the miner, overclocking tools, etc. It is an option only for users already familiar with Linux and may not be the best mining OS for newcomers. If you choose Tails as your cryptocurrency mining system, you have to take care of the miners' and drivers' updates yourself.

Price: Tails is 100% free and open-source.

Conclusion

There are many cryptocurrency mining systems in the market. Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. When choosing the best OS for crypto mining, it is worth choosing a system that is still being actively developed so that we can enjoy support for the latest graphics cards and the highest performance, which translates into increased profits. Still, if one chooses a system designed for cryptocurrency mining, a cryptocurrency mining rig's configuration and maintenance will be much simpler than a general-purpose system.